The SF Giants came to Play

 

We had tickets Saturday night to the Giants vs. The Sacramento River Cats at Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats are the Giants AAA affiliate here in Sacramento and were at one time the AAA team from Vancouver and were an Oakland A's affiliate.

 

It was an interesting week what with the officer involved shooting and death of an unarmed man in his Grandmother's backyard in Sacramento, The story is that there was a report of a guy breaking into vehicles in South Sacramento. The Sheriffs helicopter spotted the guy and he ran into a backyard. They alerted the Sac PD and said that the guy was armed with a tire iron. The police approached him from the side of the house and he ran at the police with what they thought was a weapon. The two officers unloaded their revolvers and a total of 20 shots were fired. The guy was killed. The cops then turned off their audio and had a conversation. The video and tapes were released this week and all Hell broke loose. We had a visit Thursday night from the Black Lives Matter traveling protesters and they shut down our Interstate 5 in downtown Sac at rush hour and then proceeded to the Golden 1 Center where they locked arms and effectively closed the arena on the night of an NBA game. There were about 3000 people already in the arena (there was a season ticket holder's event) and they stayed to watch the game. The team provided free food and soft drinks to anyone who made it into the arena. The BLM folks stayed until about 8:30 and then dispersed for the bus ride back to Oakland.

 

The protesters came back on Friday and closed several streets as they marched from downtown to the home in South Sacramento where the shooting occurred. They did turn hostile downtown where a guy jumped onto an SUV and yelled at the woman driver, who sped away as the guy jumped off, but not before one of the protesters broker her back window. The protesters also mobbed another woman who was stupid enough to yell at the protesters to "Get out of the street!!". They chased her and threw water bottles on her. The thinking was that the protesters would stay in Sacramento as there was a gun rally Saturday morning and the thought was they would stay around to cause a mess at the Giants-River Cats game. We have season tickets and had not only our seats to the game, but I bought 8 more for a couple of my employees to invite agents.

 

I had golf Saturday morning up in Marysville about 45 minutes north of Roseville. John and I drove up together and had the second tee time. It had rained all week again and it was finally suppose to clear Saturday, although the course would be wet and "Cart Path Only". John and I chose to walk the course and brought our push carts. The course up in Marysville is built in farmland and was originally built by a group of farmers for their own use. It is a nice course, but the rains have played heck with the conditions and it was pretty overgrown and wet in a lot of areas. I have really struggled with my back lately and the wet weather has really caused me to suffer from some stiff joints and a crooked back. I played pretty poorly overall and shot a 47 on the par 35 front nine and a 46 on the par 36 back nine for 93. That included a four putt 7 on a par three on the back. I was tired and wet and sore at the end of the round and told John before we left that I wanted to get back right after golf. I want to get to the ballpark about two hours before the game because the scuttlebutt was that the Black Lives Matter group was going to march and close the Tower Bridge that leads to the stadium at 5. The game was 6:05. I finished par-par-par and hit my stride late. I was disgusted with the total, but it turns out that the entire group struggled and that my 93, net 77 tied for 2nd low net  and I won $33. That strong finish meant a lot as it turns out.

 

John and I made it back in record time and I was able to shower up and we were at the ballpark by a little after 4 PM. We were able to watch the Giant's batting practice and ordered our chicken tenders and onion rings from an uncrowded Pub on site. Darla and I sat up in the Solon Club, which is a private club for season ticket holders until Pete and Vicki got there at 5:15. We met them with their tickets at the gate. We wanted to go back up to the club and I asked Darla to pull out our tickets and she couldn't find them. You have to show your season ticket to get into the club. We had to pull aside and Darla wet through all of her pockets and her tiny purse and we were stuck. Pete and I even checked the purse that held gum and her cell phone and some tissues. I told Pete and Vicki to head up and we'd go to our seats. Darla then found them and told Pete and I we were lame for not finding them. She then found them and they were with her cell phone. She told Pete and I that we were lame for not finding her lost tickets in her own purse? OK

 

We wanted to sit up in the Solon Club because our seats are right behind home plate and although great seats, they are in the shade and it was getting windy and cold. The Solon has seats in the full sun overlooking first base. We found our other employees sitting below us and Connie, one of my Senior Assistants, gave one of the Giant's coaches a big hug and a kiss. It turns out that the Giants new batting coach went to college with Connie. Small world. The Game was really good and our River Cats actually beat the Giants 8-7. The protesters were a no show as I'm sure the BLM does not like to pay overtime to their protesters.

 

You can see the picture of Samson above rolling in the grass at the park across the street. He loves to go off leash at the park and will run in circles and rub himself all over the grass as you can see. The other picture was from Friday night when I was barbecuing pork chops. I was carrying them out in the package to put on the grill and they slipped out of my hands and I tried to grab them but they flew up in the air and hit Samson on the head. The blood is the juice from the pork, not from Samson. The last picture is of Samson after his shower on Saturday morning.

 

I forgot to mention that when I went to pick up Michael last Monday  I decided to skip a potty break before I left as I was running late. Big mistake. The drive out to the airport goes through farm land and then a lonely stretch of highway with no services. I got about halfway to the freeway and a "need" hit me. I had the sweats and my toes were curling up and I was afraid that I'd just have to pull the car over, drop my pants and do the deed. As luck would have it, I pass rice fields as I drive and it is a perfect area for hunting. There was a lone Port-a-potty on the side of the road behind a gate. I hopped the fence and was afraid that it would be locked, but no only was it open, but it had been recently serviced and was clean as a whistle with fresh everything in the shack. That was heaven as I cured my need.

 

Darla was off today with her sister and they took back shoes and dresses and bought more shoes and dresses for the wedding and reception. Apparently this is some kind of big deal as they made a day of it and she modeled all of her purchases for me tonight. I have a tux and will wear a dress shirt and slacks to the rehearsal dinner.

 

Well, that is it for this week. Darla and I are off to see the new movie, "I can only Imagine." on Tuesday night. Next weekend is Easter and the celebration of the biggest gift any of us will ever receive as Jesus died on the cross in place of us to pay for our sins. Happy Easter to everyone. I will make it a Good Friday this week as I will meet my friend, Bob Pando, in Fairfield for golf. I'm bringing Neil and John as well. Ciao.

St Paddy's Day 2018

Well, back at it on a Sunday night. It was a nice and relaxing weekend. It had rained most of the week and the storm would stay around until Saturday night, or so we thought. I had a Best Ball tournament with Paul on Saturday and we teed off at noon. My back had been acting up all week in concert with the weather and I had been hobbled and crooked throughout the week. I was actually somewhat relieved that we would miss golf on the weekend. And then I woke up Saturday morning to sunshine. The game was on. I didn't want to let down Paul. As I turns out he had a really stressful week at work and showed up for my benefit. We played horribly as you might expect. Paul shot 85 and I put up a truly awful 94 and we shot a 73 best ball, this coming three weeks after we shot 61 at Diamond. I actually picked up on four holes as I was in the high rough and either couldn't find my ball or couldn't advance it. The course was a little rough and really wet as they hadn't been able to get out and mow it. The rough was both long and wet. I did see a group of male turkeys courting some females along the way and snapped that picture.

 

The relaxing part of the weekend is that we slept in both weekend days until 9 o'clock, unheard of for us. Samson slept in as well which helped. The problem was we missed church today. Darla felt guilt and bought me breakfast and we then we went to Home Depot to buy some replacement sprinkler heads for a couple that had developed leaks. I got home, put in the sprinklers and then mowed the lawn and went around the house with a big jug of Roundup and sprayed the weeds in the driveway cracks, the sidewalks and in the flowerbeds in both the front and backyards. I took a break to watch some of the golf and then went back out and blew off all of the sidewalks and the driveway. Then I used the leaf vacuum to pick up leaves that had accumulate with the rain throughout the property and cleared out several of the eave points at the roof gutters of leaves and debris that accumulated in the storm.

 

You can see some pictures of Darla and I from last night when we got together for dinner with Phil and Carmen. They are the couple that Darla set up several years ago and they are still together. They are both originally from Mexico and were born about 100 miles apart in small villages outside of Guadalajara, Mexico which is in the state of Jalisco. They are both now citizens of the United States, although Carmen speaks more fluent Spanish and sometimes struggles with English. Their story is a funny one in that Darla thought that Carmen would be perfect for Phil. She brought up the prospect to Phil when we were having dinner together after the junior golf tournament that I worked on and Phil volunteered for. He said, "Oh, I'm really not looking for a relationship and just play the field." When we mentioned that Carmen looked a little like Sofia Vergara, his tone changed. When Darla showed him a picture, he thought it was a joke. Nope. They are still together and struggle with trust issues as they were both in difficult marriages the first time around. They are getting through it and make a cute couple.

 

The second set of pictures are from dinner out on my birthday with Pete and Vicki and Michael, our corporate VP of employee development. We went to Benihana's and had a ball. Michael was in Monday to Wednesday and will be back in May.

 

The next set of pictures are of Samson. The first has him on his new bed in our room. That bed has helped us break him from the habit of jumping up on t our bed. The next two were pictures Darla sent me at work of Samson getting in to the mud and the result of his mud bath.

 

The final set are of Sara's Dad's condo in PV that Jennifer and the girls stayed in for the bachelorette party. Sara is Jennifer maid of honor. The house is in Puerto Vallarta above the Bay of Banderas. It is a 4000 square foot 3 bedroom, 4 bath condo with all three bedrooms with an on suite bathroom. The villa includes 2000 square feet of balconies and the infinity pool and courtyard. They had a great time and after seeing the pictures and the private beach, I can see why. The condo is called Villa Azule Celeste and rents for $600 a night.

 

We went to dinner at Rubinos in Rocklin and were talking after dinner and decided to go over to a wine bar close by. There was a band playing and a small dance floor and we had a bottle of Zinfandel and talked until after ten. It was a fun night, although nothing that we did would have been a clue that it was St Paddy's Day. I don't like acting like a leprechaun on Saint Paddy's day or a caballero on Cinco de Mayo.

 

I'm sure you all saw that Jennifer had a bad reaction to something on Saturday morning and ended up being rushed to Emergency. They applied steroids and Benadryl and the swelling went down. She swelled up on her lips, mouth and fingers. She thinks that she had a bad reaction to salicylate. The only thing she had in the morning were 5 Advil and some orange juice. Both are very high in salicylate.  Salicylate sensitivity symptoms are swelling of the face, lips, hands and feet; itchy skin, hives and rash: and headaches; all of which she experienced. The steroids and Benadryl quickly stopped the symptoms dead in their tracks. She has an Epi-pen now in case she ever experiences those symptoms again. I guess it was pretty scary. She is off ibuprofen now.

 

That will do it for this week. I have golf on Saturday up at Plumas Lakes golf course near Marysville and then seats to the Sacramento River Cats and San Francisco Giants exhibition baseball game at Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats are the AAA team for the San Francisco Giants. I am a season ticketholder for the River Cats at work and we got the tickets as part of our season ticket package. We will go with Pete and Vicki. I will be back at the keyboard next Sunday rain or shine and it is supposed to rain. Ciao.

 

 

Happy to be Springing Forward

Yes. Thrilled to have more sunshine at night so I can do some things around the house after work and so that I can see when I'm barbecuing. I wish we'd do away with the whole Daylight Savings Time. It is so depressing to have it get dark at 4 PM during the Winter. It is 5:30 right now and we are still enjoying bright sunshine and 72 degrees. Nice.

 

Jennifer is happily bacheloretting in Puerto Vallarta in a 4000 square foot house on the Bay of Banderas. She is there with her two bridesmaids, Beth and Sara, and a couple of Sara's friends. They are staying at Sara's Dad's house so the extra attenders are fine. They got there last Wednesday and will fly home on Tuesday so this is a serious trip. You can see by the couple of pictures she has sent us that they are having fun.

 

The other pictures are of Samson. He continues to be a handful for Darla as he loves to chew on things. We thought it was a teething phase, but the guy just loves to chew EVERYTHING. He ran into the house with a mini hoe that Darla has in the backyard for her flower pots and flower beds. He was chewing away at the wood handle. Darla took a picture and sent it to me at work.

 

I have started taking Sam to the park across the street and to a remote area in the back near the school district offices and letting him off leash. I have his remote collar on and if he tries to bolt after people or other dogs I give him a "reminder" buzz and he runs back to my side. He has enjoyed the freedom of running and chasing his ball. We had an incident Friday night where a guy who had his German Shepherd off leash stopped to talk to us and his dog pulled a sneak attack on Samson who was on leash and being held by Darla. The dog launched himself at Samson and clamped onto his rear leg. The owner who happened to be a heavy set dude, tackled his dog and pulled him off Samson. Darla and I were completely shocked at the speed and viciousness of the other dog. He was wearing a shock collar as well, but the owner was too startled to use it and just wrapped his arms around his dog and pulled him off. Samson wasn't injured, but he was scared and whimpering. Darla was really thrown by what happened and was concerned with what she would do if a stray dog attacked him on one of our walks. I sent Kevin a note and asked him what to do if a dog attacks. I assumed he'd recommend pepper spray, but he said to carry an air horn and blast it in the ear of the attacking dog. The pain in his ears will make him unclamp on Samson  and run away. Interesting.

 

I played in the final round of the 54 hole event and Ron and I could not have played better...on the front nine. We had 5 pars, two birdies and two bogeys for a gross 36, net 29. We fell apart on the back and shot a gross 46, net 39 for a 68 and missed the money by three shots. We had three double bogeys on the back side. Ugly stuff. Paul and I will play in the St Paddy's Day tournament at Woodcreek next Saturday.

 

I got a chance to talk to Dad on Saturday night. He is in Texas at Darryl's place and I wished him a belated happy birthday. They have been in Texas for a week and will be heading home on Wednesday. They had visited Randy and Cake for a few days and were at Darryl's place in Carrolton. The whole family was together except for Kal and Jenny as she was working. Janelle and Aaron even drove up from Houston and brought some crawfish and seafood for some kind of Mumbo Gumbo or something. It sounds like they were having a great time. I was able to talk to Cheryl and wish her a Happy Birthday.

 

I got our tickets lined up for Vancouver in May. We arrive in Seattle on Wednesday the 9th and drive up to Vancouver that night, checking into the hotel and staying over Wednesday and Thursday. We are set loose after breakfast on Friday and will have Dad and Shirley bring the sky train into downtown and we will go and visit some sights downtown, have a nice lunch somewhere on the water and then get out of dodge before rush hour, which is hell in Vancouver. We will stay with Dad and Shirley until Sunday night and then drive back to Seattle for a night flight home. Samson will stay at the Dog spa, er Kennel while we are gone. He will get to try out how he likes that during the wedding.

 

Darla and I went to church last night and got the news that they are close to hiring a full time Senior Pastor. We have gone about two years with interim pastors from our Mother church. We have an Executive pastor who is very good, but not a preacher by trade. His strength is administration. The pastor that they are trying to hire is the guy who preached last week from Oklahoma. We liked him a lot, so hoping and praying that God leads him to Roseville.

 

We went out to dinner last night after church to Carmelita's Mexican Restaurant in old Roseville. This is one of the real deal Mexican restaurants in town and they were serving posole, a Mexican soup like menudo made with hominy and simmered cubed pork. I enjoyed it although hominy is an acquired taste. Darla said she could do without next time. We split an order of steak and chicken fajitas and even had enough leftovers for lunch today.

 

I have Michael, our Corporate VP, flying in tomorrow for three days. It is my birthday and we will pick Darla up in the afternoon and head over to Benihana's in Citrus Heights for dinner. Mike will work with my newer and younger staff over the three days he is here and make agency calls and help them work on business plans. I have a new Underwriter who will work the Stockton territory, a new Personal Lines Underwriter from a competitor, a trainee in Personal Lines and one in Commercial Lines who started as an intern and then hired on as an Associate Underwriter out of the University of Arizona. The latter two will start underwriting in July.

 

Well, it is after 6 and I have to barbecue some chicken for dinner. Darla has been baking a birthday cake and my mouth is watering. Have a great week and I'll be at it again next weekend. Getting closer to the wedding and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

 

 

 

 



A Pause in the rain...for some golf?

 

We had quite a week of wet weather with about 3 1/2 inches of rain in Sacramento and almost 7 feet of snow up in the Sierras. We really needed it as we were poised to re--enter our drought conditions of the last few years. The weather people like to complain that we are so far behind that this storm will do little to bring us back to normal. Fine, but it beats no rain. I had to clean up a lot of downed tree limbs and debris from the winds that accompanied the rain. We even had white out conditions on Wednesday in downtown Sacramento as a hail storm blew in and blanketed the downtown. it looked like snow, but was about 45 degrees outside when it hailed. We didn't get the hail out here in Roseville, just the rain and the wind. The hail was so thick that it looked like snow and many Sacramentans were fooled into thinking that it was snowing.

 

 

Darla and I were able to get out this weekend to see Luke's basketball game in Folsom. We were torn as I was playing golf both days and we wanted to go to church. We were able to get out to his game, watch them play and still make it back to Roseville in time for service on Saturday night. It was nice seeing Luke and Don and Alicia. Don has been diligently trying to lose weight and has lost over 30 pounds and looks good. It will be to his benefit to take off the extra weight and keep it off as he tries to keep up with Luke at 7 years old. Don is 48 years old.

 

The preacher at church was a guest pastor from a church in Oklahoma and a Cowboy fan and he got booed. He talked about Love and how to sustain or find a great partner in life. His point was building a strong foundation and he brought up the story of Mark and Brenda Voss, who retired and decided to build their dream vacation home in Hammock Dunes, Florida in a gated golf community on the ocean in Flagler County. They built a beautiful 5000 square foot, $680,000 5 bedroom 4 bath three story home. Six months after they built the home a survey crew was out in the community and made the discovery that the home was built on the wrong lot. The Voss' own the lot at 23 Ocean View Boulevard and the home was built on 21 Ocean View Boulevard. Well, you'd think that's what title insurance is for, right? Well, the problem is that the title insurance is for 23 Ocean View Boulevard and the home is built on 21 Ocean View Boulevard. There was an owner of the lot at 21 Ocean View Boulevard and the contractor of the custom home was able to work a deal whereby they switched deeds and the Voss' had to pay $20,000 for the increased value of the lot at 21 Ocean View Boulevard. Hard to believe that could happen, but it does several times a year across the country.

 

The pictures above are of the course at Diamond Oaks where the waterfall is that I've shared before. You can see the damage that the rain has done to the Oaks on the course there as they received too much water and rotted from the inside. We need to be careful or they will rename the course Diamond Oak-less.There is a picture from Luke's game as well as one of Darla taking Samson for a walk today as I was working on the yard.

 

Darla and I are struggling with our annual trip to Almanor. We're not sure that Jennifer and McKenny are going to be able to join us. We are thinking of just using our time share and trading it for a week in Tahoe. We want Sam to come up and spend a week or two with us again this Summer and go to the Kids Program at church. We have not saved a spot at Almanor as of yet and want to talk to Jennifer and McKenny and see if that vacation is in the cards for them this year.

 

I need to get my flights arranged for our trip to Vancouver in May. I'm on the board of the Western Insurance Agents Association and we take an Annual Board meeting trip to different places. We have been to Lake Tahoe, Washington, DC and Maine and this year will be in Vancouver May 9 -11.Darla and I will extend our trip and go see Dad and Shirley. We are done early on Friday the 11th and hope to have Dad and Shirley take the Sky Train into downtown so that we can have lunch with them somewhere on the water and maybe visit Gastown before driving back before the rush hour. We will fly home on Sunday and get the dog out of lockup. It will be fun and we will see Dad and Shirley in April for the wedding and then in May in Vancouver.

 

I played with Ron this weekend in the first two days of the 54 hole Team championship. We played best ball on Saturday and I shot 87 to Ron's 95 and we only managed a 68. The leaders shot 60. Today was a two man scramble and Ron and I played much better, posting a 75 and net 61 with our team handicap of 14. The leaders stumbled and shot 69 which ties them with us. The new leaders shot 57 and have a two day total of 122. We are 7 shots back and have about six teams in front of us. The final day is the toughest of the rounds as it is alternate shot and the low handicap guys (say 8 handicap) that team up with high handicappers and clean up the first two days end up getting their just desserts in alternate shot where the 26 they are playing with shoot like a 26, yet only have a team handicap of 15 because we use 60% of the A player's handicap and only 40% of the B players'. So on the best ball when the B player is getting two strokes on 8 holes they are smiling, but when he shanks a drive out of bounds in the alternate shot, the pain is real. Ron is a 14 and I'm a 15 and we get a team handicap of 14. I look forward to Saturday to see how we finish up.

 

Well, the tri tip that Darla has ready for the barbecue will not grill itself, so I had better wrap this up and get to attending to dinner. I hope you are all well. Take care. Ciao.